Top News:
Brianna Sacks / BuzzFeed News:
Ex-staffers of Freedom Daily say Brian Kolfage, who raised $20M via a GoFundMe campaign for Trump's wall, pushed them to fabricate stories for his website — “He never wanted the truth. It was all just for clicks, and the more inflammatory, the better," a former employee said.
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NBC News:
Brian Kolfage's previous fundraising efforts relied on two ultra-conservative websites, Freedom Daily and Right Wing News; Kolfage denies he owned Freedom Daily — Brian Kolfage, a triple-amputee Air Force veteran, has operated fake news websites and fundraisers to build a lucrative email list.
Discussion:
@oneunderscore__ and @oneunderscore__
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
NYT announces it's launching a weekday 3-minute news briefing and a news quiz for Alexa-enabled devices, with eventual expansion to Google Assistant and Siri — The New York Times is pushing further into voice products for smart speakers. On Friday, the company announced that it's launching …
Discussion:
New York Times, @digiphile and MediaPost
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Facebook's fact-checking operation launches in the UK and partners with the independent charity Full Fact to assess the accuracy of content — Social network brings in independent charity in attempt to tackle misinformation — Facebook's fact-checking operation is launching in the UK …
Discussion:
Full Fact, Press Gazette, Telegraph and WIRED UK
Matthew Kassel / Columbia Journalism Review:
As President Trump's press bashing continues unabated, local journalists face increased incidents of being spurned and vilified by elected officials — Douglas Burns, a fourth-generation journalist, is co-owner of the Daily Times Herald in Carroll, Iowa, a newspaper that has been in his family since 1929.
Discussion:
@cjr, @penamerican, @rokhanna, @news_collab, The Rural Blog, @spjlv, @rylandky and @ruralj
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Over half the top 20 YouTube search results for “RBG” this week pointed to false far-right videos, spotlighting how misleading videos bury credible content — Conspiracy theories about the health of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg have dominated YouTube this week …
Discussion:
@hshaban, @jzheel, @slpng_giants, @oneunderscore__, @marietjeschaake, @tonyajoriley, @hshaban, @garettsloane and @drewharwell
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
In SEC filing, Fox confirms it won't bid on the 22 regional sports networks Disney must sell — The new-model Fox Corp. will not be a bidder in the auction of the 22 regional sports networks that Disney is set to buy from 21st Century Fox. — Fox confirmed in a Securities …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, SportsBusiness Daily, @jbflint, Multichannel News, The Wrap, @manabyte and Awful Announcing
Kit Walsh / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Bird sends dubious DMCA takedown notice to Boing Boing over a post explaining how to legally buy an abandoned Bird scooter and convert it to a personal scooter — Every now and then we have to remind someone that it's not illegal for people to report facts that they dislike.
Discussion:
Boing Boing, @alexstamos, @sil, @adamsinger, @waxpancake, The Verge, @techdirt, Techdirt and @lenazun, more at Techmeme »
Rani Molla / Recode:
Top US ad buyers: Amazon could get 12% of total digital ad spending in 2020, up from 6% in 2018; Facebook's main platform may lose three percentage points — Top ad buyers say increased spending on Amazon is mostly coming from other digital platforms. — Amazon could double …
Discussion:
@kurtwagner8, Investor's Business Daily and Ad Age
Reuters:
Myanmar court rejects the appeal of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, the two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in jail for their reporting — Thu Thu Aung, Poppy McPherson — YANGON (Reuters) - A Myanmar court on Friday rejected the appeal of two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years …
Discussion:
New York Times, Press Gazette, Reuters, CNN, CBS News, Washington Post, Committee to Protect … and Al Jazeera
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Google has stopped making its Chromecast Audio streaming adapter, focusing on smart speakers instead — Google has stopped making its Chromecast Audio streaming adapter, and is instead focused on smart speakers going forward. A company spokesperson confirmed Friday that Chromecast Audio …
Discussion:
9to5Google, TechCrunch, RAIN News, Ausdroid, VentureBeat, Gizmodo and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat:
Producers of French TV shows agree to give Salto, an OTT service for French content, extensive and exclusive content rights, blocking sales to Netflix, others — France's major broadcasting companies have struck a deal with producers that will allow them to remove their content from streaming services …